Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-06-25

1
| Confederate soldiers, the meeting presided over
by man who lost an arm and a leg in fighting
on the Northern side, and the leg not lost 50
hurt that it does not amount to much The Cot
ton Exhibition held not long ago at Atlanta
was attended by tens of Thousands of Northern
people, and by General Sherman, who was
greeted with Kindness as though they had
never seen him before. At the New Orleans
exhibition held two years ago, every North
ern State was represented. A tnousand-fold
kindlier feeling after the war than before the
war. No more use of gunpowder in this
country except for rifle practice or Fourth
of July pyrOtechnics or at shot at roebuck
in the Adirondacks. Brigadier-G Generals in
the Southern Confederacy making their for
tunes as lawyersin the northern cities, Rivers
of Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina
turning mills of New England capitalists.
The old lions of war-Fort Sumter and
Monltrie and Lafayette and Pickens and
Hamilton sound asleep on their iron paws, and
instead of raising money to keep enemies out
of our New York harbor, raising money for
the Bartholdi Statue on Bedloe's island, figure
of Liberty with uplifted torch to
light the way to all who want to come In.
Instead of war antipathies, when you could
not cross the line between the contestants
without fighting your way with keen steel
or getting through by passes carefully scruti-
nized at every step by bayonets, you need
only a railroad ticket from New York to
Charleston or New Orleans to go clear
through and there is no use for any weapon
sharper or stronger than steel pen. Since
the years of time began their roll has there
ever been in about two decades such an over
mastering antithesis as between the war time
of complete hi terness and this time of COM
pIete sympathy.
Contrast also the domestic life of those
times with the domestic life Of these times.
Many of you were either leaving home or far
away from it, communicating by uncertain
letters. What a morning that was when you
left homel Father and mother crying, sis
tiers crying, you smiling outside but crying
inside Everybody nervous and excited.
Boys of the blue and grayl Whether you
started from the banks Of the Hudson, or
the Savannah, or the Androscoggin, don't
you remember the scenes at the front door,
at the rail car window, on the steamboat
landing. The huzzs could not drown out the
suppressed sadness. Don't you remember
those charges to write home often and take
care of yourself be good boys, and the good
bye kiss which they thought and you thought
might be forever Then the inconsistencies as
you faced the river bank on starlight night
on picket duty and the sly tears which you
wiped off when you heard group at the
camp fire singing the plantation song about
the old folks at home. The din
ner of hard tack on Thanksgiving
day and the Christmas without any presents,
and the long nights in the hospital so differ
ent from the sickness when you were at home
with mother and sister at the bedside, and
the clock in the hall giving the exact moment
for the medicine, and that forced march
when Your legs ached, and your head ached,
and your wounds ached, and, more than all,
your heart ached Homesickness that had in
it a suffocation and pang worse than death.
You never got hardened as did the guardsman
in the Crimean war, who heartlessly wrote
home to his mother:
Il do not want to see any more crying let
tiers come to the Crimea from you. Those
have received put into my rife after load
ing it and / have fired them at the Russians,
because you appear to have a strong dislike
of them. If you have seen as many killed as
| have, you would not have IS many weak
ideas as you now have"
You never felt like that When a soldiers
knapsack was found after his death in our
American war there was generally careful
package containing a Bible, a few photo
graphs and letters from home. On the other
hand tens of thousands of homes waited for
news. Parents saying; Twenty thousand
killed ] wonder if our boy was among
them" Painting dead away in postoffices
and telegraph stations. Both the ears of
God filled with the sobs and agonies of kin
dred waiting for news or dropping under
the announcement of bad news. Speak,
swamps of Chickahominy and midnight la
goons and fire-rafts of the Mississippi, and
gunboats before Vicksburg, and woods of
Antietam, and tell to all the mountains and
villages and rivers and lakes of North and
South jeremiads of war times that have
never been syllabled.
Beside that domestic perturbation and
homesickneSs of those DAYS put the sweet
domesticity of to-day. The only camp fire
younow ever sit at is the one kindled in stove
or furnace or hearth. Instead of half ration
~ calt Inv nj
partaken of by loving family circles in secret
condolences. Oh, now | see who those
letters were for, the letters you, the
young soldier, took SO long in your
tent to write and that you were so
particular to put in the mail without anyone
seeing you lest you be teazed by your COM
rades God spared you to get back. Though
the old people have gone you have home Of
yonr own construction, and you often contrast
those awful absences of filial and brotherly
and loverly heartbreaks, with your pres
ent residence, which is the dearest place you
will find Thu. side of heaven, the place where
your children were born and the place where
you want to die. To write the figures 1862
set up four crystals of tears. To write the
figures 1887 stand up four members of your
household, figures Of rosy checks and faxen
hair, if l can get them to stand still long
enough.
Living soldiers of the North andSouth, take
ucW anu SiJtLldi dJ LtllS ccdcOH VI
the year to garland the sepulchres Of your
fallen comrades Nothing is too good for
their memories. Turn all the private tombs
and the national cemeteries into gardens. Ye
dead of Malvern Hill, ard Cold Harbor, and
Murfreesboro, and Manassas Junction, and
Cumberland Gap, and field and hospital re-
ceive these floral offerings of the living SOL
diery.
But they shall come again, all the dead
troops. We sometimes talk about earthly
military reviews, such as took place in Paris.
in the time of Marshal Ney, in London, in
the time Of Wellington, and in our own land;
but what tame things compared with the
final review, when all the armies Of the ages
shall pass for divine and angelic inspection.
st. John says the armies of heaven ride on
white horses, and don't know but
some Of the Old cavalry horses Of
earthly battle that were wounded and, worn
out in service may have resurrection. It
would be only fair that. raised up and en-
nobled, they would be resurrected for the
grand review Of the Judgment Day. 1t
1t would not take any more power to recon-
strllct their bodies than to reconstruct ours,
and should be very glad to see them among
the white horses Of Apocalypfic vision. Hark
10 the trumpet blast, the reveille Of
the last Judgment. They come up. ALI the
armies of all lands and all centuries, on which
ever side they fought, whether for freedom
or despotism, for the right or the wrong.